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Check here CAT total marks and number of questions, as a part of your CAT 2025 journey. Also know the marking scheme and sectional weightage so that you know how much preparation is required for which section of the CAT.
CAT total marks and number of questions
CAT is an MCQ based exam, conducted to assess an MBA aspirant’s English communication, quantitative aptitude and reasoning skills. Candidates preparing for the CAT 2025 exam, must know what is the composition of the CAT question paper and of how much marks will the exam be. Read this article to know CAT Total Marks and Number of Questions, which will help you in exam preparation and performance.
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- CAT Total Marks and Number of Questions
- CAT Marking Scheme 2025
- CAT Section Wise Number of Attempts
- CAT Total Marks and Number of Questions Over the Years
CAT Total Marks and Number of Questions
Given below is the table indicating CAT total marks and number of questions for 2025 examination.
| CAT Sections |
Number of Questions |
Marks Per Question |
Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| VARC |
24 |
3 |
72 |
| DILR |
22 |
3 |
66 |
| Quantitative Aptitude |
22 |
3 |
66 |
| CAT Total Marks |
68 |
- |
205 |
Also read:
CAT question papers are released within a week of the exam in the form of a PDF as a response sheet and answer key. Candidates who have appeared for the test are able to access the CAT question paper and answer key. The question paper of every slot is released on the same day along with candidate response sheet and official answer to all question. If any candidate needs previous year CAT question papers for preparation purpose, then they can download them from Shiksha website. We have hosted last five years' CAT question papers for aspirants to download and practice. These official CAT question papers are available for download free. You can download the CAT question paper PDFs at this link: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/cat-exam-question-papers Candidates must check and practice the latest CAT question paper to know the latest exam pattern and difficulty level.
CAT Marking Scheme 2025
CAT has simple marking scheme. Below mentioned are the key points to understand the CAT marking scheme:
- CAT Total marks is 204
- Every question will carry 3 marks
- There will be negative marking of -1 for incorrect attempts
- There will be no negative marking for non-MCQ questions
- Negative marking does not apply to non-MCQs and unanswered questions
CAT Section Wise Number of Attempts
CAT 2025 will have 68 questions but it will not be mandatory to attempt all the questions. Candidates must however, make sure to attempt a good number of questions per section to get a good CAT score and percentile. Given below is the estimated number of good attempts for CAT 2025:
| CAT Section |
Number of Questions |
Number of Good Attempts |
|---|---|---|
| VARC |
24 |
18 |
| DILR |
22 |
15 |
| Quantitative Aptitude |
22 |
16 |
| Total |
68 |
47 |
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CAT Total Marks and Number of Questions Over the Years
Marking scheme of the CAT exam has not changed in the last decade, but CAT total marks and number of questions have been revised multiple times. Check below CAT total marks and number of questions over the years:
| CAT Year |
Number of Questions |
Total Marks |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 |
68 |
204 |
| 2023 |
66 |
198 |
| 2022 |
66 |
198 |
| 2021 |
66 |
198 |
| 2020 |
76 |
228 |
| 2019 |
100 |
300 |
| 2018 |
100 |
300 |
| 2017 |
100 |
300 |
| 2016 |
100 |
300 |
| 2015 |
100 |
300 |
| 2014 |
100 |
300 |
The CAT VARC section is dominated by RC questions. Out of 24 questions about 14-16 are based on Reading Comprehension passages and the rest of them are based on parajumbles, para completion, etc.
CAT has about 12-16 RC question. Since, it is not mandatory to solve all the questions, candidates can maximize their scores by leaving out the questions related to the passage they find the toughest. There is negative marking in CAT so candidates must ensure that they mark only the correct options or do not mark any option at all.
The key change in CAT question paper 2024 was increase in number of questions in DLIR section. Till 2023, the DILR section used to have 20 questions. In 2024, it had 22 questions. The time limit for it was the same and no other section had less questions. Which means, in CAT 2024, candidates had to attempt 68 questions instead of 66 to solve in the same time (120 minutes). DILR sectional time limit was 40 minutes as in previous years. There was no other change in CAT 2024, the difficulty level was same as previous years.
No, it is not mandatory to attempt all the questions in CAT. Candidates can choose to attempt questions as per their preparation. It is not possible also to attempt all the questions due to time limitation and difficulty level. Reading dense RC passages often take up a lot of time. In DILR and QA too, some questions are time taking and calculation intensive due to which not much time is left in hand to attempt all questions. The aim of every test taker should be to attempt about 2/3rd of the total questions in all the sections of CAT.
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Till 2014, there were only two sections in CAT. Quantitative Aptitude was clubbed with Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning was clubbed with Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension. In 2015, the Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning were clubbed together and Quantitative Aptitude and Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension made two individual sections. Since 2015, the sectional segregation has remained the same but the number of questions have come down from 100 to 66. The exam duration has also been reduced. Until 2019, the CAT exam was of 180 minutes and the total number of questions were 100. However, in 2020, the question paper structure was revised due to COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the total number of questions came down to 76. In 2021 and 2022, the number of questions were further lowered to 66. For the last two years, CAT is conducted for 2 hours, and the number of questions is 66. In CAT 2024 however, the number of questions were increased to 68.
The latest CAT question paper structure is: Total questions: 68 Number of sections: 3 Order of sections - 1. VARC 2. DILR 3. Quantitative Aptitude Sectional time limit: 40 minutes VARC questions: 24 DILR questions: 22 Quantitative Aptitude questions: 22.